News:IMPORTANT MESSAGE! This forum has now been replaced by a new forum at http://forum.eastgate.com and no further posting or member registration is allowed. The forum is still accessible via read-only access for reference purposes. If you wish to discuss content here, please use the new forum. N.B. - posting in the new forum requires a fresh registration in the new forum (sorry - member data can't be ported).

Good evening!Iíve been taking reading notes with Tinderbox for several years now. At the beginning of my learning, I didn't know exactly what kind of reading note cards I needed. In the end, I built a file from the Built-in prototype named ę†Reference†Ľ and began to add some specific attributes suited for my needs. In the following link, youíll find an example file you can use and test according to your needs: http://www.eastgate.com/download/FichesDeLectures.dmg That file contains several notes and specific attributes in the research field of sciences of education. I use it for writing my doctoral thesis.

I tried to look at this file. Before I opened it, it required me to agree to a software license absolving Eastgate of any liability. After I did that, the file was locked and read-only, so I couldn't browse through it without saving a separate copy. Even closing it required me to go through a couple of popups announcing that the changes that I (hadn't) made would not be saved. Sorry, but I just don't want to put that much effort into it.

Move the file to your hard drive before opening it. Depending on how the creator configures the disk image (DMG) a file opened on it wil not be able to write changes. v6 uses newer Apple frameworks and makny state changes (selected item, tab, etc.) are saved as changes regardless of an delibarate content edits by the user.

I've no idea why the DMG includes the Eastgate message as I don't believe there is any stricture on users sharing their own TBX files. I'm happy to help re-package this in a plain DMG file, but only with the originator's permission.

Thanks to Dominique Renauld for his ongoing posts and videos about la vie Tinderboxique. They've been very useful, including this latest file. I mean it as a relief and compliment rather than anything else when I say: I was glad to see that its structure is very much like what I have evolved on my own.

When I started using TB six or seven years ago, I wasn't sure how it could match my then-workhorse, the Windows program Zoot. Now it's hard for me to think of how anything else could match the flexibility and power of TB.

2) Select the notes that represents the book; drag a link into the main parking space.

3) Switch to a tab for the container where you keep notes

4) Make a note. Drag a link from the parking space

5) Repeat.

''Alternatively,'' make a $Source attribute -- a string, and simply type the source information into each note. This works nicely when you're going to be taking lots of notes from the same source over an extended period -- you can simply write PL 2.32 or Hamlet I.iv.10 easily enough, and that can be easier than linking.

If you switch sources a lot -- if you're reading with six or seven open books on your desk -- itís useful to keep one tab with a list of these sources and another with your notes. That way, you can quickly switch from the source list to your notes, which makes linking easier.

Hamlet, I.iv.10 (taken from an old translation, bought when I was a young student and didn't know yet Tinderbox) : "And as he dreines his draughts of Renish downe,The kettle Drum and Trumpet thus bray outThe triumph of his Pledge."Words of circumstances... wish you all the best for the year to come...I'm about to record some new short screencasts about how I use to take notes.

I can drag a book into TB from Bookends and an automatic "Reference" prototype is created all filled in with the correct bibliographic information. I will be making notes on several book on the same topic, so each book will be dragged in via Bookends.

I don't want the notes for each book in a container for each book as some notes will relate to each other. Creating a prototype for each book will also not be useful as some notes will comment on more than one book. i was thinking of the following:

1. Create a prototype for quotes. These can then be linked to notes derived from the quote allowing multiple quotes to be linked to one note and one note to multiple quotes.2. Create a prototype for notes

I was trying to test myself the solution you've just suggested with a Tinderbox file. In this configuration, you'll probably have to rewrite every book references for every note you'll have created. For instance, if you create a note called "Deconstruction" in reference to Jacques Derrida's works, you would have to enter some basic metadata such as : an author's name, a book title, perhaps a date, and so on. Then, if you create another note in relation to that topic (Deconstruction) and with the same references, you would have once again to write the same references. In my experience, the links are very useful when it's about to visualize some similar notes in map view : indeed, in this way, you can easily "brainstorm" your reading notes and organize them as you would do if you have to draw and write a geographic map.

I realised that. I actually found that when you drag in a book reference from bookends it creates a prototype called "Reference", but it also creates a prototype of the actual book. This means that it is then easy to create a note, paste your quote and give it the books prototype, which will in turn give the note the books bibliographic data.

That essentially solves the problem. It allows quotes and notes to be easily separated.

Mark B's comment above about using links to connect "reference" notes and quote notes has been a successful approach to me. This makes it easy to connect a single "quote" note to several "reference" notes via links, and even to other "quote" notes. Using various "link types" can help too: reference, connection, extension, disagreement, etc.